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EPIGRAPHJA INDICA
(VOL. XVIII
prisoner and condemned to death, but was saved from death by the intervention of the mother of Baláditya (Vatsadēvi). This contest may be dated about 525-530 A.D.
I leave out of discussion the position of Yasodharman and Vishyo-vardhana in chrono. logy as it has hardly nny bearing on the present schome.
Narasimha-Gupta Bălăditya did not probably long survive his victory over Mihirakula, and the accession of the next king Kumara-Gupta III may be dated in G.E. 213=532 A.D. The last Damodarpur plate is dated in 214 G.E. and it was issued during the reign of a Gupts whose name has been broken away. I have reasons to thiuk that he was Kumars-Gupta III Prof. Basak supposes that only two letters have been broken away and lost; but the letter ra, the last letter of Kumāra, which is simply & perpendicular stroke, does not occupy much space, and further discoveries will, I think, show that the Gupta king ruling in the East in 214 G.E.=533 A.D. was Kumāra-Gupta III, son of Baladitya.
On the testimony of the Kalighat hoards which contained coins of Baliditya, KumáraGupta III, Chandra-Gupta III and Vishņ (Gupta ?)-Chandraditys, we may take the successor of Kumara-Gupta III as Chandra-Gapta III, who appears to have been succeeded by one whose name began with Vishnu and whose title was Chandraditya. We cannot my definitely who this Vishnu was. But there cannot be any doubt that he was of the imperial Gupta line, as the Garada standard on his coins would signify.
For the remaining period, until the first established date of Sasanka in 606 A.D., Eastern India was ruled, as Mr. Pargiter has demonstrated, by the emperors Dharmaditya, Gopa-Chandra and Samichårs. It has been already pointed out that Samachara was a devotee of Siva; and it does not seem an impossible conjecture that all these kings were related to one another and formed a dynasty that took the place of the Guptas in Eastern India.
TOPOGRAPHY.
As already pointed out, Váraka-mandala was the name of the district.
About the position of Våraka-mandala I am in substantial agreement with Mr. Pargiter and I think that he is right in thinking that Varendra or Varendrr is derired from the same root. The word Varaka means obstructing, opposing; mandala means a collection of small areas. So the word Varaka-mandala should be taken to mean, an area of land consisting of smaller areas lying between and separating rivers; Väraka may also be taken in the sense of
the deltaic land that obstruats and alters the current of a river'; Varaka-mandala would then be a group of deltaio areas. Anyway, Varaka-mandala would be the district round Kotalipada in the present district of Faridpur, almost in the heart of what was anciently known as Vanga.
Kotălipăda is at present & Parganah in the district of Faridpur. The old settlement was in and about the old mud fort there, in the vicinity of which the Ghagråhati plate of Samåchåra-deva was found. A number of gold coins of the Gupta emperors have been found outside the western par or embankment of the fort.
Prof. H. Roychaudhari's objections to identify Narasimha-Gupta Baladitya with the conqueror of Mihirakula de not appear to be very sound (J. 4. 8. B., Vol. XVII, p. 315). Even allowing that Yuan Chwang's statements regarding Balāditya's predecessors are historically accurate, Tathagata is not stated to be the father of Balāditya nor Badhe of Tathigata, and there is no mention of inmediate succession. Baladitya's son is Kurin-Gupte Yuan Chwaug gives his name as Vajra; but evidently this is a pet name or a family name, and not the royal name.
See Allan, Intro., See. 166-169 and pages 137-146.
A 320 well as a muon. A son of scorching rays to his enemies and moon of pleasing and cool rays to hh Priende.
